Many conventional manufacturing processes, such as casting extruding and molding, for example, require expensive tools, dies and/or other equipment. Accordingly, such processes can be quite expensive for production of a single prototype component or low-volume production. Selective laser sintering (SLS) can be a cost-effective manufacturing process for low-volume production of components having complex three-dimensional shapes.
SLS is a manufacturing technique that includes using a laser to fuse or sinter particles of plastic powder (or other material) together to form a desired shaped component. The laser scans a block of powder material (e.g., nylon or other polymeric material), sintering one thin cross-sectional layer of the powder material at a time until the entire shape of the component has been formed into the block of material. Once the sintering is complete, the formed block of material includes sintered powder in the shape of the component being produced surrounded by unsintered powder. Thereafter, the block of material may be cooled on a “breakout” table or “unpacking” module, and the unsintered powder may be removed from the sintered material. Removing the unsintered powder (or “breaking out” the sintered component) can result in unsintered powder being spilled on the floor and/or unsintered powder becoming airborne.